Yet another bomb scare…

[Todd300]

I actually prefer being in the woods anyways. Just me, myself and I along with nature. The only reason I do urban caches at all are for numbers.

[geolivestrong]

I’m going to write once and I’m done with the subject. I’m more than a little perturbed with this entire thread/situation/debacle/or whatever else you would like to call it. Police were wrong? Maybe. Police were justified? Maybe. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about the situation as it is.

Here is what bothers me. This is an ASSOCIATION that is designed to FURTHER the sport of geocaching. Creating good will, educating the public (and the law enforcement community), and other similar CONSTRUCTIVE activites should be what this organization stands for. But instead we have people calling law enforcement officers idiots, clueless, stupid asses, fools in blue, Barney Fife’s, and whatever other monikers I may have missed. Now that folks is one hell of a way to promote this association.

So you would like the police to utilize the GC site to confirm whether a package is a cache or not? Great idea. But if they also decide to “check out” these forums as they catch wind of this sport and see that they are being branded as a bunch of idiots….guess what? I think you can likely see my point. What a shame it would be for a police officer who has some pull in the community to take offense to this thread and convince the council to ban the placement of caches in his/her community. What if it was Green Bay? or perhaps Appleton? Yup, that would sure be a real laugher now wouldn’t it? Can’t be done? Think again.

So go ahead and flame me if you will. Frankly at this point I couldn’t care less. I’m simply stating my concerns about the direction of an association that I was proud to tell people about just a couple of days ago. I know not everyone associated with the WGA is in this category of people that need to evaluate their actions; actually quite the contrary. Those who get it and promote the WGA in a POSITIVE manner….thank you!

[Walkingadventure]

Sometimes I think we all just need to vent and use this safe place to do so with like minded people but I think we all would never ever sell ourselves and the WGA out like that. Maybe that’s would be another good subtopic area.

Following the signals from space.

[sandlanders]

Thank you, geolivestrong.

Yes, this is the organization’s website, and these are the organization’s forums, but they are open to anyone who cares to read them, member or not, geocacher or not. As with anything anyone ever posts anywhere, please take a moment or two to THINK before pressing the “submit” button.

And this is all I will say on the subject.

[Walkingadventure]

If only in these moments of stress would I remember this one saying that makes it all better: Aaahhh Kelly Clarkson. (My attempt at levity!)

Following the signals from space.

[The Happy Hodag!]

I’m going to stand by my comments on the log on this one, as well as Chip & Dale. If you see random people going to the same spot and fiddling around with whatever happens to be there, over the course of a year plus, and the thing doesn’t blow up, no bomb. That is espescially if it’s a TKKS cache.

-The Happy Hodag!

The buck stops here. . .and gets entered into Where's George.

Where's George? Stimulating the economy one EMS'ed dollar at a time.

[Todd300]

Well, I guess the media did not follow up on this story. It would be nice if they did. The articles from both the P-G and WBAY make me look like a criminal, which obviously I’m not.

[DeputyDog]

@Todd300 wrote:

Well, I guess the media did not follow up on this story. It would be nice if they did. The articles from both the P-G and WBAY make me look like a criminal, which obviously I’m not.

Looks like things have quieted down now. I haven’t seen anything since the original articles. There was a cache a block from the one you did that has gone missing now. I wonder if they found that one but figured what that one was. It vanished in the past 2 days.

[Todd300]

“Chillin’ at Fort Howard” – I did that one before I did Cormier. It’s very possible I was spotted doing that one too. And that one had a freshly placed TB in it by a previous cacher only a couple days earlier. I saw it, but chose to leave it for another cacher as I’m already holding like 5-6 coins or TB’s that I have to move along yet. Now I wish I had grabbed it.

I’m still waiting to hear from the Ashwaubenon Police for one final follow up and once that’s done, I guess that’ll close the book on this case.

[gotta run]

@Todd300 wrote:

“Chillin’ at Fort Howard” – I did that one before I did Cormier. It’s very possible I was spotted doing that one too.

It’s more likely the parks department just took that one. It was a gallon jar stuck in the middle of a rudbeckia (black eyed susan), placed in September when the plant was still full. Well, rudbeckias die down after frost, and the November 4 log indicates the flowers were deadheaded by the parks folks, so….

On the Left Side of the Road...

[DeputyDog]

Yeah I’m guessing the park just took that one since MacGyver has been getting logs about it sticking out like a sore thumb. OT- grats on finding Hiking gottarun . Hoping the 3rd time will be the charm this weekend on that one. I’m getting tired of playing in that area lol.

[Todd300]

Still no word from the local LEO’s so I guess the case is closed.

If Gotta Run or anyone else did not post the bomb scare thread, I would not have known about it at all. But I’m sure I would have found out about it eventually.

Thanks to y’all for sticking up for me. Appreciate it. I’m still hesitant to do some urban caching, but eventually I’ll get over it.

[seldom|seen]

@bigguy-pmurk wrote:

The cops around here are completely without a clue. About 2 months ago, I was on an FTF run for a new cache out by the jail and BCMHC when I was detained by two cops. They stopped me for about a half an hour to lecture me on how I looked suspicious, and that I was only going to get one warning to stay away from that area, and how I should post a note on the geocaching website so people would know to stay away from that area. The one was from Allouez, and he mentioned how there was something like this that the police had blown up in a park about a year ago, and how people didn’t learn from that. Apparently it was the Super Troopers that had a tough time wrapping their gourds around this one.

I suspect this thread has run its course and can lie now until next year when an overly sensitive citizen – plagued by news of homegrown terrorism, child molesters assimilating into their community and illegal drug cartels operating in the northwoods with orders to shot on site – feels the needs to quell that tiny bit of suspicion rising in their stomach as a furtive figure does something slightly suspicious or out of the norm across the street. All of the above are real and present dangers, but not to 99.99% of the community.

Yet, that’s not the way it is presented by the media and as a result we are a fearful and suspicious people taught to react first and ask questions later. Fortunately, these incidences of intervention are few are far between… unfortunately, we don’t have any control over the magnitude or clarity of response by the departments entrusted with the safety of the public.

I’ve been questioned by law enforcement on many, many occasions. In almost all circumstances, the officer(s) knew of the sport or at least have the willingness to listen and give me the benefit of the doubt. Once in a while, though, you do run into one with an issue or an axe to grind. I sat handcuffed in a squad while a particularly brash officer read me the riot act as I tried to explain that the keyholder on the bus sign was a cache, and nothing more. I’m sure it was more a case of “I’m gonna leave a lasting impression on this guy” than anything, but he was threatening me with possession of burglary tools based on the needle nose pliers and phillips screwdriver I had on my person. Now, a younger me would have been all up in his face and suggesting he go ahead and arrest me, but an older and wiser me knew nothing of any merit would come of it and let the scenario play out as I knew it would.

The moral of the story is that no matter how well informed, prepared or educated a force (as mentioned in this thread, many are) there will always be a few that aren’t or want to make a point. We can’t know the motivations behind decisions to create spectacle from non-incident, but I am certain someone in the chain of command that day, or indeed on any of the occasions of detonation, knew what the container probably was and likely made it know if it wasn’t already widely recognized by many on the scene as a geocache. These are trained law enforcement personal who see everything in the line of duty and I would put money on these incidents being more about following protocol, demonstrating public safety and or testing expensive anti-terrorism equipment than they are about anyone mistaking a 35mm container for a threat. I only wish the media would do their job and say as much.

[DeputyDog]

@Todd300 wrote:

Still no word from the local LEO’s so I guess the case is closed.

If Gotta Run or anyone else did not post the bomb scare thread, I would not have known about it at all. But I’m sure I would have found out about it eventually.

Thanks to y’all for sticking up for me. Appreciate it. I’m still hesitant to do some urban caching, but eventually I’ll get over it.

If your down this way again and want to do a urban number run, let me know. I have a bunch of areas to hit in the surrounding areas around GB. I don’t mind the guys in blue stopping by to check on me.

[Todd300]

I spoke too soon. I heard back from the Ashwaubenon Police today while I was at work. They said that they showed my statement to the Cormier School principal. She said that after she read my statement, she will not be pressing charges.

I was thinking to myself, “Wow, you mean they were considering charges in the first place?”

The officer then thanked me for my cooperation and told me the case is closed and I will not be hearing from him again.

I’ll say this – if they DID indeed go ahead and press charges on me, I would have fought tooth and nail to prove I did not do anything wrong, but I’m glad it didn’t have to come to that. I’m sure TKKS also is relieved that this case is over as well.

DeputyDog, I’ll take you up on that offer to go on an urban run. We just have to pick a day to do it. I have a busy week ahead of me so not sure when I’ll be out caching again. I’ll let you know.

As S|S said, this thread has about run its course – at least until the next incident, which is most likely to happen.

But I do want to hear from the Green Bay Metro area geocachers if they have started any dialogue with the Green Bay Metro area police departments and get them informed about geocaching.

I don’t mind explaining to a cop if one stops me while geocaching, but it is a whole lot easier to explain to a cop what I’m doing if he knows about geocaching. If a cop has no frickin’ clue what geocaching is, then it gets tougher. I know some of you have been detained or arrested by such cops and if we can get the word out, we can prevent that.

Perhaps a new thread can be started on any progress of any dialogue between the geocaching community and the local LEO’s not just in Green Bay, but in other communities as well.

Again, thank you guys for having my back.

-Todd

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